Congratulations to SOM clarinet professor Alexander Fiterstein who was featured in the South Florida Classical Review's Top 10 Performances of 2011. Fiterstein performed with the Friends of Chamber Music of Miami in "Ken Noda and Friends." Fiterstein was described as bringing "agility, a rounded tone and graceful phrasing to Brahms' sonatas."

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Thanks to the Pennock Family Fund, School of Music students were able to participate in sectional rehearsals, led by Minnesota Orchestra musicians. In this photo, Minnesota Orchestra member Jean Marker De Vere greets School of Music student Samuel Wong before leading the second violin sectional rehearsal. See more photos on the School of Music's Facebook page. Photo: Greg Helgeson

The following faculty members were awarded Imagine Fund Grants. These programs support leading-edge, innovative lines of research or scholarship projects in the arts, humanities, and design at the University of Minnesota.

Lydia Artymiw (piano) was on the jury for the Manhattan School of Music's Eisenberg-Fried Piano Concerto Competition on February 19, 2015 in New York City.

Tom Ashworth (trombone) and Phil Hey (drums) will perform in Fireside Five & Friends at the Underground Music Cafe (Falcon Heights, MN) on Thursday, February 26. The evening will feature special guests Pat Mallinger, saxophonist and featured artist of the 2015 U of M Jazz Festival, and Jazz Festival Director Dean Sorenson.

Guerino Mazzola (creativity, improvisation, and mathematical music theory) will co-author a text book tentatively titled Cool Math for Hot Music - An Introduction to Mathematical Music Theory with Springer Publishing. Mazzola's co-authors are University of Minnesota School of Music students Maria Mannone and Yan Pang. The text book will be published in fall 2015.

Fernando Meza (percussion) spent two weeks in January researching marimba tradition in Costa Rica. He interviewed key members of the marimba community in Santa Cruz, Guanacaste; observed rehearsals and performances of marimba ensembles; and attended the celebration of the Black Christ of Esquipulas, a traditional religious celebration connected to the rich marimba tradition in this region. He will return to finish his research in August as part of a Grant-in-Aid of Artistry, Research, and Scholarship (U of M Office of the Vice President for Research). Meza will perform as principal timpani and percussion for the Santo Domingo International Music Festival (Dominican Republic) in March and will travel to Cuba in May with the Minnesota Orchestra. Meza recently performed with the Minnesota Orchestra (Osmo Vänskä and Yan Pascal Tortelier, conductors) and performed Nebojsa Zivkovic's Die Arten des Wassers at the University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point with Adam Rappel (DMA, 2012, percussion) and Paul Shaw (piano).

Karen Painter (musicology) will be part of the A Zócalo/Getty "Open Art" Event at the Getty Center in Los Angeles, CA titled "Does Artistic Greatness Only Come with Age?" on Tuesday, March 24. As the Getty Museum presents an exhibition of the late work of J. M. W. Turner, muralist Judithe Hernández, painter Ed Moses, and musicologist Karen Painter visit Zócalo to discuss the relationship between age and artistic greatness.

Michael Hoffman (BM, 2014, voice, student of Jean del Santo and John De Haan) performed the role of Spoletta in a semi-staged production of Tosca with the Colorado Symphony (February 13 and 14) with Andrew Litton conducting.

Jeffery Kyle Hutchins (MM, 2013; DMA, 2015, saxophone, student of Eugene Rousseau) presented guest artist recitals and classes at the University of North Texas (Denton, TX), Tarleton State University (Stephenville, TX), and Northeastern State University (Tahlequah, OK) and presented a clinic at the Texas Music Educator's Association Convention (San Antonio, TX) titled "Saxophone Basics: Tools to Help Your Beginners." Hutchins will present a concert of radical new works for saxophone at Studio Z on March 6, 2015 at 7:30 pm. Works by Miriama Young and Eric Wubbels; world premieres by Volker Heyn and Jeremy Wagner (MA, 2008; PhD, 2012, student of James Dillon); and an essay by David Foster Wallace. Hutchins will be joined by Neil Nanyi Qiang (DMA candidate, piano, student of Timothy Lovelace) and Ann Bradfield. This event supported by a grant from New Music USA.

Michael J. Krajewski (DMA, 2013, guitar/music education, student of Jeffery Van, Scott Lipscomb, Alex Lubet, and Maja Radovanlija) recently presented at the Minnesota Music Educators Association and Texas Music Educators Association conventions. At MMEA Krajewski presented "Improvisation: Where to begin" and at TMEA he presented "Developing Interactive Content for the iPad using iBooks Author." In January, Krajewski was awarded a Dille Grant of Excellence for his proposal "Developing Performance Techniques using Abelton Live."